A British man arrested by US troops in Iraq while searching for his young daughter was expected to be released soon, American officials said today.

Street performer Michael Todd, 33, from York, had said he was determined to travel to Baghdad shortly before the outbreak of war to find 19-month-old Sajida.

He said the child was his by a woman known only as Abla, with whom he had a relationship when she was a student in Leeds three years ago.

US forces arrested Mr Todd in the northern Iraqi town of Sulaymaniyah on July 4. He is now being held in Baghdad. ''He was detained because he was trying to cross the border into Turkey and we did not know why,'' said a spokesman for the coalition forces.

''Everything he has told us checks out and we expect him to be released shortly.''

The spokesman said he could not give a likely date for Mr Todd's release.

Mr Todd said in February that Abla, 32, disappeared from Leeds soon after she discovered she was pregnant, despite the couple's plans to marry.

Once back in Iraq, she wrote to tell him about the baby and the anger she faced from members of her family outraged at her having had a child with him.

Last month Mr Todd turned up in Turkey when he told reporters Abla had been killed in the Allied bombing of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

But he said the Turkish government had allowed him to cross into northern Iraq and he was determined to continue his quest.